The present invention relates to an Ethernet detector and more specifically to an analog Ethernet detector for IEEE 1394b Long-Haul Applications.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has approved a 1394b Standard which is poised to become the home networking Standard of choice for connecting consumer electronics devices such as audio/visual devices with personal-computers. The IEEE 1394b Standard can provide high-speed 100 Mb/second transmission speeds at distances up to 100 m over Standard Category 5 (CAT 5) cable. This cable is sometimes referred to as CAT5 UTP, for untwisted pair cable. The IEEE 1394b Standard is a low power yet high-speed, plug and play system which supports both isochronous data such as video and voice and asynchronous data such as IP. The ability to utilize CAT 5 cable is a big advantage because many homes today are already wired with this type of cable. This will allow consumers the ability to provide advanced home network and create a high-speed connectivity between their living room audio/video components and their home office.
The ability to transmit on CAT 5 cable, which makes this system so attractive, is also the potential cause of a problem for the consumer. The reason that consumers have CAT 5 cable wired throughout their home is for an Ethernet connection and not for connecting consumer audio/visual components to their home office. The connectors for IEEE 1394b and to the Ethernet on CAT 5 cable are identical and the consumer may not know which wiring is connected to the Ethernet and which wiring is for the IEEE 1394b connection. Worse, the current embodiment of IEEE 1394b shares some pins as an Ethernet. If the consumer were to connect a IEEE 1394b device to the Ethernet, the data that is sent from the device over the Ethernet may interfere with the network or computers connected thereto. Accordingly there is a need for a circuit to detect connection to the Ethernet.
There is a need for an analog circuit that is compatible with any S100 1394b compliant device to detect connection to an Ethernet without the need for a processor core or a timing circuit.